UK domain registry Nominet is reporting that global growth in domain name registrations fell by 50% this year.

Nominet's Domain Name Industry 2008 report found that the average growth rates of 30% over the past few years have dropped to a nominal 15% growth.

Top level domains were the hardest hit. In fact, .com and .net fell to under 10% growth this year. The bright side, however, is the CCTLD (country code top level domains) which, while falling slightly still managed a 26% increase this year.

For some this announcement will indicate that the the practice of domaining has matured (and in my opinion it most certainly has), but it is certainly feasible that current economic conditions have simply slowed the acquisition of new domains.

When ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) officially allows customized domain names in 2009, organizations (like yours) may be forced to take a more selective approach to registration.